[Closed] Combi boilers- Advice and experiences

My advice would be stick with worcester bosch or vaillant can,t go wrong as long as installed correctly

personally I wouldn't pay less than £1000 for a combi boiler....

I risked a Ravenheap when they were on sale and B&Q...it's lasted 4 years OK but has a tripping fault which appears to have around a dozen diffferent causes, and most engineers are "a bit busy" when I call for help.

DO NOT do not do not DO NOT buy a worcester bosch bolier, biggest piece of carp on the planet. Ok and breathe, Glo worm now produce combi bolier for City Plumbing complete with a 15 year parts warranty for £1049 or £899 for 10 year warranty. Might be worth a look

geordiemick00 Any reason for that? dropoff I'll look in to that, thanks people

Do elaborate drop off.

They have been ultra reliable in my parents house with only a new expansion vessel and 1 pcb in 14 years , they do have some quirks but having a wb specialist in the family has its uses.

Still fitted a grant in my own house as im oil

I paid £1700 for a Potterton combi boiler plumbed and fitted with a full radiator flush and TRV regulators in October 2009.
So far its been flawless.

I went for a slightly larger capacity model and run it at 70%, don't know if that will extend its lifespan at all though.

I'm intrigued too why you don't like worcester.

As someone else said stick with Worcester or Vaillant.

personally I wouldn't pay less than £1000 for a combi boiler....

Is there any reason why you would deliberately over pay for a boiler ?

You can get any number of good boilers for less than £1000

 

I'm intrigued too why you don't like worcester.
As someone else said stick with Worcester or Vaillant.

It's not very often you will get an installer that says worcester are no good.

Sometimes someone who's had a few problems with a boiler will say it, but generally within the industry they are well regarded as very good boilers with very few problems.

DO NOT do not do not DO NOT buy a worcester bosch bolier, biggest piece of carp on the planet

That sounds like the words of a man who has just tried to change a PRV on a newer Worcester combi

 

Nowt wrong with Worcester boilers. Yes the PRV is a bitch to change on newer ones but that's about it. Reliable and if you get a WB approved chappie fitting it you have a 7 year warranty.

OP mentions ProCombi, don't do it, rebadged Vokera boilers which will cost a small fortune to fix when they inevitably start going wrong. The Main Elite is (most likely) a rebadged Baxi Duotec. My advice, buy a Baxi Duotec but not the newer GA model. The older model is currently being marketed with a 7 year parts and labour warranty and is as good as any boiler out there.

The Glowworm "lifetime" warranty for £1050 +vat sounds like a good offer but it's a Glowworm, and they are shite.

Worcester Bosch, Vailant blah blah blah. I had a ferroli and it was ok also had a worcester and it was ok, 2 combis I bought in last 2 yrs are potterton main and weismann 100, first size your combi on dhw not ch and second get stainless hex. Weismann 100 is the skoda of boilers all the German quality without the bells and cost.

My best mate is a plumber of over 20 years, and when he advised me that a Worcester was the combi for me I didn't really need any other recommendations. It's been a great boiler with absolutely no problems whatever.

My Dad was cajoled into signing up for a new boiler and 1 radiator by an unscrupulous British Gas salesman (with a nice new BMW) in 2009, he was at the time suffering some mental problems after being knocked off his bike by some idiot and receiving a head injury so signed up and paid over 5k !!without talking to us about it 🙁 This boiler has had over 50 visits from British Gas to fix faults, the engineers are incompetent and the boiler is carp the original installation was wrong but trying to get any admission of fault from BG is a nightmare.

cynic-al - Member

I risked a Ravenheap

Have you had a new timer fitted? We bought/moved into my grandparents house and this excuse for a boiler is what we're stuck with due to lack of funds. Had a new pcb at about 8 years old and a new timer at 12 ,the new digital timer(old one was dial) has cured it. The only other problem I get with mine is the fan bearing dries out it's simple enough to do with a screwdriver, can of spray grease and the boiler electric supply turned of, of course I'm not suggesting you should attempt this yourself!

I have a combi in a 3 bedroom house, its great, its a glo worm, can't compalin. However, someone said that the only downside is some families like a traditional system with a hot water tank and it might not be so attractive to a buyer. But damn them, I love my no power shower, power shower. Mains pressure FTW

Viesmann

Vaillant

3 Valliants in 3 different houses and all were top notch, they just plough on relentlessly.

I have been very impressed with our Ariston
6 year old with good flow rate and some good deals to be had on them

Thanks for the help. Prob going to go with the Main elite, Baxi are a decent brand from what i can gather. To be fair WB was never on the cards, but good to hear both sides

Gloworm here, I fitted them in my last two houses. Been fine.

Wasn't there a big ongoing thing with Worcester Bosch on Watchdog etc, something about pcb's & a reluctance to honour warranty claims...?

I'm not going to recommend the boiler I have simply because it works perfectly and I don't want to jinx that.

My baxi has been nothing nothing but trouble, I've had to replace a lot of parts, variable temps on the water on the same day, wished I bought a new one when it started going wrong, I must've spent twice what I paid for it on new bits and labour...

Worcester Bosch.. dont look anywhere else. fit 3 a month on average and in 7 years i ve had to call worcester only once to come out under warranty.. they came same day. ( chap had fitted a new bathroom and had cut a section out of the CH pipework and capped the ends..thus blocking the flow!)

Veissman - very good boiler.

Drop off - sounds like an installation or system problem then? No boiler will like being installed on a poor system.

Well thanks for that Bear, it was installed by BG and he pays them nearly £400 a year in insurance, funny really that the ins cost keeps going up because they have to make so many visits ?

Your opinion and experience of Worcester Bosch is at odds with the majority of the heating industry so I wondered why.

But you tell an all too familiar story of BG.

my buddys WB was installed by BG as well and its garbage and incredibly hard to bleed , lazy so and sos have dropped pipes down from the celing in conduit - so boilers on the ground floor - pipes go up into the upstairs - under the floor and are dropped down to the rads.

he has a 4 foot floor space with a suspended reinforced concrete floor like me .... one suspects they didnt have or want to use their hilti gun with the big drill bit.

in contrast my dad whos a builder installed his him self in a conventional manner..... my uncle came and hooked up the gas (hes a WB approved agent and has all relevent certs)

and it has had a couple of parts over hte years but nothing major imo.